The Sixty Dome Mosque ( ''Shaṭ Gombuj Moshjid''; more commonly known as ''Shait Gambuj Mosque'' or ''Saith Gunbad Masjid''), is a

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

in Bagerhat,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is a part of the

Mosque City of Bagerhat The Mosque City of Bagerhat ( bn, মসজিদের শহর বাগেরহাট; historically known as Khalifatabad) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Bagerhat District, Bangladesh. It contains 360 mosques, public buildings, mausoleu ...

, a

UNESCO World Heritage Site A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

. It is the largest mosque in Bangladesh from the sultanate period (13521576). It was built during the Bengal Sultanate by

Khan Jahan Ali Ulugh Khān Jahān `Alī ( bn, উলুগ খান জাহান আলী), was a Muslim saint and the Khan-i-Azam of Khalifatabad (now in Bangladesh). It is believed that he built the great Mosque City of Bagerhat, now a UNESCO World Heri ...

, the governor of the

Sundarbans Sundarbans (pronounced ) is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans the area from the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's division of Khulna to the Hooghly R ...

. It has been described as "one of the most impressive Muslim monuments in the whole of South Asia."

History

In the middle of the 15th century, a Muslim colony was founded in the mangrove forest of the Sundarbans, near the coast in the

Bagerhat District Bagerhat District ( bn, বাগেরহাট, pron: ''bageɾɦaʈ'') is a district in south-western Bangladesh. It is a part of the Khulna Division. Geography Bagerhat district has a total area of 3959.11 square kilometres. It is bounded by ...

by a saint-General, named

. He preached in an affluent city during the reign of Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmud Shah, then known as 'Khalifatabad'. Khan Jahan adorned this city with more than a dozen mosques, the ruins of which are focused around the most imposing and largest multi-domed mosques in Bangladesh, known as the Shait-Gumbad Masjid (160'×108'). The construction of the mosque was started in 1442 and it was completed in 1459. The mosque was used for prayers, and also as a madrasha and assembly hall.

Location

It is located in Bagerhat district in southern Bangladesh which is in

Khulna Division The Khulna Division ( bn, খুলনা বিভাগ) is the second largest of the eight divisions of Bangladesh. It has an area of and a population of 15,563,000 at the 2011 Bangladesh census (preliminary returns). Its headquarters and lar ...

. It is about from the main town of Bagerhat. Bagerhat is nearly from

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city i ...

which is the capital of

Style

The 'Sixty Dome' Mosque has walls of unusually thick, tapered brick in the

Tughlaq The Tughlaq dynasty ( fa, ), also referred to as Tughluq or Tughluk dynasty, was a Muslim dynasty of Indo- Turkic origin which ruled over the Delhi sultanate in medieval India. Its reign started in 1320 in Delhi when Ghazi Malik assumed the ...

style and a hut-shaped roofline that anticipates later styles. The mosque has an oblong plan of 148'6" x 101'4" externally and 123'3" x 76'2" internally. There are 77 low domes arranged in seven rows of eleven, and one dome on each corner, bringing the total to 81 domes. There are four towers. Two of four towers were used to call the

azaan Adhan ( ar, أَذَان ; also variously transliterated as athan, adhane (in French), azan/azaan (in South Asia), adzan (in Southeast Asia), and ezan (in Turkish), among other languages) is the Islamic call to public prayer (salah) in a mosq ...

. The interior is divided into many

aisle An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...

s and bays by slender columns, which culminate in numerous arches that support the roof. The mosque has 77 squat domes with 7 four-sided pitched Bengali domes in the middle row. The vast prayer hall, although provided with 11 arched doorways on east and 7 each on north and south for ventilation and light, presents a dark and somber appearance inside. It is divided into 7 longitudinal aisles and 11 deep bays by a forest of 60 slender stone columns, from which springs rows of endless arches, supporting the domes. thick, slightly tapering walls and hollow and round, almost detached corner towers, resembling the bastions of fortress, each capped by small rounded cupolas, recall the Tughlaq architecture of Delhi. The western wall has eleven mihrabs on the interior where ten are blind and the central one is projected on the exterior. The mosque represents wonderful archeological beauty which was the signature in the 15th century.

Sixty domes or sixty columns

The mosque is locally known as the 'Shat Gombuj Masjid', which in Bengali means Sixty Domed Mosque. However, there are 77 domes over the main hall and exactly 60 stone pillars. It is possible that the mosque was originally referred to as the Sixty Pillared Mosque where Amud (شصت عمؤد ) meaning column in Arabic/Persian, later got corrupted to Gombuj (গম্বুজ) in Bengali, which means domes.

Gallery

File:Sixty Dome Mosque Bangladesh.jpg, Sixty Dome Mosque Bangladesh File:Sixty dome mosque in the evening.jpg, Sixty dome mosque in the evening File:ষাটগুম্বজ মসজিদ.jpg, Side View File:60 Dome Mosque, Bagerhat.jpg, Southeastern View File:Panoramic view of Sixty Dome Mosque.jpg, Panoramic view of Sixty Dome Mosque File:ষাটগুম্বজ মসজিদের ভিতরের পিলার.jpg, Inside of Mosque File:Shat Gombuj Mosque 0008.JPG, Ceiling of the Mosque File:ষাট গম্বুজ মসজিদ (কেবলা).jpg, Inside of the Mosque File:ষাট গম্বুজ মসজিদের মেহরাব ১.jpg, Arches of the Mosque File:ষাট গম্বুজ মসজিদের মেহরাব ২.jpg, Arches of the Mosque File:Sixty Dome Mosque-09.jpg, Arches of the Mosque File:Sixty Dome Mosque-18.jpg, Exterior of the Mosque File:ষাট গম্বুজ মসজিদঃ মুলদ্বার।.jpg, Exterior of the Mosque File:ষাট গম্বুজ মসজিদ ভেতরের দৃশ্য.jpg, Inside Pillars File:Bagerhat Museum Bangladesh.jpg, Bagerhat Museum Bangladesh

Notes

External links

Saith Gunbad Masjid on Archnet

Website of Shat Gombuj Mosque

{{Mosques in Bangladesh Bengal Sultanate mosques Mosques in Bagerhat World Heritage Sites in Bangladesh